Studying trans fats

While it’s too soon to tell what kind of influence the ban will have on the greater population in terms of decreased heart disease, a released last month in JAMA Cardiology revealed that the potential impact is promising.

Researchers compared several localities that ban trans fats in restaurants with those that don’t.

They analyzed data from state health sources between the years 2002 and 2013, focusing on hospital records of heart attack and stroke.

Three years after trans fats bans were put in place, the numbers revealed a 6 percent decline in hospitalization due to coronary heart disease for people who lived in areas where the trans fats were prohibited.

“It’s significant,” said Dr. Bruce Lee, associate professor of international health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Even though the study was small in scale, Lee said it reinforces previous research and declarations that banning trans fats is good for public health.

“There is a good body of evidence that supports the policy that bans trans fats,” he told Healthline.

When it comes to packaged foods, trans fats are everywhere.

Consumers can find them in products from breads to cookies to frozen pizzas.

The oils provide a longer “shelf life” and add flavor to many popular name brand products.

Trans fats do occur naturally in meat and dairy products, but the FDA ban won’t impact those food items, just the ones that contain artificial trans fats.

By 2002, a significant number of studies had revealed that trans fats were unhealthy.

Four years later, the FDA issued a label change to all processed foods. Those new rules stated that the amount of trans fats be listed along with carbohydrates, sugars, and fats.

What the ban will mean

Next year, if a product carries less than .5 grams of trans fats the label will list “0 trans fats.”

What does this new rule mean for consumers?

First up, food manufactures won’t stop adding oils and fats into their product. They’ll just come up with new recipes that include news types of fats.

According to a in Civil Eats, that means they’ll likely lean on “,” such as soy, canola, cotton seed, and palm, “that have been engineered to make them last.”

The FDA estimated that removing trans fats from processed foods would cost an estimated $6 billion to put in effect, according to .

But it’s also expected to save $140 billion over 20 years in healthcare and other costs.

Consumers should also be prepared that some food products that we’ve grown fond of will likely taste different. These include Coffee-mate, Bisquick, and Twinkies, according to a published in the Greatest.

Dr. Boris Lushniak, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Health, and a former U.S. Deputy Surgeon General, said it’s a small price to pay if it means moving the needle on heart disease.

“Through science we have convinced policy makers to change context,” he told Healthline. “And we’ve been doing this for a while.”

He points to the transformation of cigarettes in American society.

In the 1950s roughly 42 percent of Americans smoked. Today, it’s just 16 percent of adults.

But that sea change took more than 50 years of ever-changing public policy.